No MS-DOS sound in Current set-up

[Frank-0-Video]

Updated Greeting --- May 31 2011

My motherboard has a PC speaker connection. This will be confirmed when the speaker is installed.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Video

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Greetings and apologies ....

I erred when submitting my original post --- The PC speaker is -NOT- the issue.

I meant to say that I was not getting MS-DOS-generated sound. I am using Windows XP Home-SP3, and the Realtek sound card appears not to have support for DOS sound.

Will welcome any useful advice - thank you.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Video

[AlanHK]

Check the BIOS options when booting, you may have to activate sound.

Also look a the motherboard documentation.
I had a PC that I though the sound was dead, turned out (after I installed a sound card) that it just needed a jumper set to turn it on.

[TimA-C]

Are you saying that you're not getting any sound at all or just that you're not getting the posting beeps at startup before windows loads?

[jagabo]

There's usually a 4 pin header on the motherboard (only two pins are used) to connect to a small internal speaker. Some motherboards have a tiny piezoelectric speaker mounted directly on the motherboard. Your case probably has a location for mounting a small speaker. It even already have a speaker mounted, but the wires aren't connected to the motherboard. If you don't have a speaker but do find the 4 pin header you can get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/PC-Internal-Mini-Onboard-Speaker/dp/B002W4M0DW

And, although it's theoretically possible, you can't use these for full range audio like you get from a sound card. They are just for BIOS beeps.

[Nelson37]

Describe more completely how you are determining that there is no MS-DOS sound.

Most soundcards no longer support MS-DOS, however, you don't have DOS on that box.

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ...

I've run several DOS Basic program that have sounds in them. Those sounds can not be heard on my desktop PC. The programs do work in an older GATEWAY MX-6214 laptop.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank

[Nelson37]

These would be addressing the mobo speaker. Either you don't have one, it is turned off or disconnected, or it is defective.

[jagabo]

I've run several DOS Basic program that have sounds in them. Those sounds can not be heard on my desktop PC. The programs do work in an older GATEWAY MX-6214 laptop.

DOS programs might use the motherboard hardware and internal speaker (usually just simple beeps) or they might use a sound card. But to use a sound card the game had to have support for that specific sound card. Most games supported the various Sound Blaster cards in those days. And many other sound cards could emulate one of the Sound Blaster models via an installable driver.

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ....

Just ran a test using the Windows-based Powerbasic Console Compiler, which has a "beep" command. The beeps came through on the two stereo sound speakers.

I do not hear any beeps when the computer starts up, so I may not have an internal pc speaker. I have learned through Jagabo that I can get such a speaker for less than $2 a pop at Amazon-dot-com.

Is there a Sound Blaster emulator driver available for the Realtek card? If so, how is it found, installed and configured? Reminder - I am using Windows XP Home SP-3.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Video

[redwudz]

The POST (Power On Self Test) beeps are separate from the sound card. At POST, the sound card drivers aren't loaded yet anyway. Some motherboards also can do beeps when the CPU overheats during normal operation.

I'd check the motherboard front panel header and see if there is anything attached to the internal speaker connector. Some people unplug them as they can be a bit loud, especially when turning on the PC at night when others are sleeping.

Most of the newer MBs come with a peizo speaker and they are fairly quiet. I remotely boot my servers from another room and I listen for the beep to tell me they are running.

If you are having problems with the PC, the POST beep codes can also tell you quite a bit about the problem. Just look up 'Beep codes' along with your BIOS manufacturers name.

[jagabo]

This page has a picture of the typical speaker connector on a motherboard:
http://au.hardwarezone.com/reviews/view.php?cid=19&id=1215&pg=21

Your motherboard must have one of those to connect a speaker. I've seen a few motherboards with only 2 pin connectors for the speaker.

Here is a motherboard with an integrated piezoelectric speaker:


Note there are two ways a DOS program can address the onboard speaker: by using BIOS function calls or by writing directly to the speaker hardware. When using BIOS calls a sound card driver can intercept those calls and produce the sounds through the sound card and the external speakers. Writing directly to the hardware can't really be intercepted (well, it can but it takes much more sophisticated software that nobody supplies).

I've also seen a few sound cards which let you connect a cable from the motherboard speaker header to the sound card. With those you got the motherboard beeps through the sound card and its speakers.

[Frank-0-Video]

Updated Greeting --- May 31 2011

My motherboard has a PC speaker connection. This will be confirmed when the speaker is installed.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Video

[[_chef_]]

Yeah, but make sure you have checked the BIOS for possible sound options enabled, SB, MPU, whatever.

[Bjs]

In general any program or game which needs to emulate sound under dos mode should have it's own sound setup ... normally one refers to device manager > audio > device (realtek ac97) ... check resources tab ... if the numbers are invalid during audio tests you go through those listed by the dos program and change resources ... a fair amount used generic sound blaster using 220, 7, 1.